Long overdue garden update!

I know I've been away from here for a long time!  Life has just been busy.  Since making the decision to leave my job in January, I had to wait out my gruelling 7.5 week notice period, after which I went directly on holiday to Malta!  It was nothing short of phenomenal and I have several posts to do about the Maltese Islands and their flora.

Reclaiming my social life!  I don't officially endorse Southern Comfort or any of their products, but I personally encourage drinking them! Haha

Since then I've been busy working away on commissions and getting my business started, as well as finally having a social life (Which I literally felt like I haven't had for several years).  If anyone is interested in following my business ventures please keep an eye on thequestisover.co.uk for any developments as they happen.  It's slow going right now, but I've had some bridal commissions and lots of paperwork to do around it before I get fully into the swing of things.

I've taken away the cosmetics sections of the blog, which although I do make don't really warrant their own section as I don't post much here about them.  So I have added new sections on Gardening on a Budget, Indoor & Container Gardening and my Lessons Learned series.  I've also changed the header but not sure if I like it yet!

Yes, I like my Nesquick chocolate milkshake...hey at least I recycle!

 Got all my plants in full swing now, some doing better than others, but definitely a large variety going on!

I apologise for the quality of some photos - I took them all on my phone because it was simpler/both my memory cards are still full of Malta photos I've not backed up yet

Most days are a bit soggy but warm enough, with the greenhouse sitting at roughly 20-25 degrees centigrade most days.  On Friday this reached 32 degrees!!

My star plants right now are absolutely my broad beans, which I planted 19th February and they proceeded to rocket skyward ever since.  They are all absolutely laiden with flowers now!  I am growing Sutton Dwarf, Aquadulce and Masterpiece Green Longpod varieties (5 of each).

So far I've managed to deter the slimy beasts (slugs & snails) from my broad beans (last year they did nothing short of rape them of all their worth - not a leaf, flowerhead or pod was left).  However, this year they look much, much healthier and larger plants, I think particularly the new varieties are really impressing me (previously I've only grown Sutton).  I keep all of them on the metal shelf provided by my Dad when he was cleaning out his office.  Since I've been using it I've not had a single slimer on that side of the greenhouse.  So I'm thinking about either replacing the wooden shelf that came with the greenhouse (and is attached to the greenhouse itself) or coating the entire thing in copper tape.

The slug was actually the second pest to get its teeth into this leaf - the top layer was eaten neatly off by some other creature, exposing all the veins first, and then the slug just came in and had a party with the rest

Unfortunately the non-metal side of the greenhouse has suffered a fair amount of slimy creature damage.  I am unkeen to use slug pellets, being a vegetarian/trying to be an organic gardener, but I am not too concerned as most of the cucurbita are actually pretty advanced, and it only seems to be, in most cases, their first set of leaves being eaten, which would have probably fallen off soon anyway.

A few plants have suffered though - like the above four Aubergines.  Its hard to tell from the rubbish photo but it does actually look like the growing tips are intact on at least 2 of the plants, so provided there's no further attacks in this particular pot they might make it.  I do however have zero cucumbers left, though I know one seed has germinated but is still to surface so it might be my only one!

My Inca Berry (aka Cape Gooseberry) plants may look from afar like they are suffering, but in fact they are thriving!  Throughout winter they seemed to have no clue that winter had arrived (much like my goji berry plant) and as soon as it hit March their leaves started to turn more dark and purpley then flowers popped up everywhere.  They also have a lot of new growth.  I haven't pruned any old leaves off yet or any new growth, because though I want all their energy to focus on the fruits, I am concerned that pruning may encourage more new leaf growth instead.  Everything I've looked up on them basically says to leave them alone once they flower, and cut down on watering them/bothering them in any way.  I do have three (well technically 4 since the shortest one appears to be twin plants) so I might experiment with pruning if I get too impatient waiting on my fruits!

Inca Berry flowers and new leaves appearing

Inca Berries have papery pods like Tomatillos which host the berry and protect them as they grow.  These turn a light brown shade and then fall off when ripe.

I've not actually had the pleasure of tasting these yet so I am pretty excited to be getting a harvest soon.  Even the most stunted plant (about 1ft tall, while my tallest is approx 3.5ft) is laiden with pods and new flowers are still appearing.  They appear to be self pollinating too, which is great.

Cucamelons are getting going now!  I've added them to this hanging basket so the mini melon plants can trail over the edges.  Very hopeful and excited for the look of this later this year.  I intend to earth up a bit as they grow.

It may be quite hard to see these plants, since most of them are purple!  These are all different types of chilli.  The ones with the green true leaves starting to come through are calico and black pearl (at the moment they appear to grow much the same).  The fully purple leaved ones are all Purple Flash.  They all appear to be struggling with actually getting growing very fast!

Black Pearl chilli plant

This for example, is an ordinary disposable cup that I'm using as a pot, which cannot be more than an absolute maximum of 5cm diameter.  The roots are tiny and all my chillis still have far to go in these vessels before being potted on.  I had been waiting for them all to get true leaves but decided to pot them into these early from the propagator because they were so slow growing!  I don't know if the propagator they were in has restricted their roots or if its because they're all purple that they're absorbing less chlorophyll?  However my green-leaved chillis are all just mildly larger.  

I planted these 19th February - so I feel they should be much, much larger.  Mark suggested feeding them with Baby Bio plant food, which I will give a try.  It may not seem much because they are still SO tiny, but they have been growing since potting on.  Nearly all of them have started growing their true leaves now, and I planted all of them with the soil right up to the base of the leaves so they've been pushing up a little.  It is quite baffling considering everything else in the greenhouse is doing pretty exceptional (aside from those poor devoured cucumbers, though they were growing well until that instance) so I'll just have to do that awful waiting/patience thing.  

I may try to plant some new seeds of the same chilli types and see what happens - perhaps starting them so early and having a long germination period rather than a shorter one in hotter weather wasn't the best approach?  I'll keep you updated on those.  I am so excited for them to grow up because their foliage is absolutely stunning, not to mention their ornamental (but thankfully also edible) chillis.

French, Borlotti and Soya Beans have all popped up now, and getting some gorgeous, fresh looking leaves on them.

I have 4 varieties of Okra this year (fast become my favourite vegetable to eat, though peas are still at the top for now).  I'm impressed with their growth thus far considering they are more partial to hotter climates.  I will be re-potting them soon once all the seeds have fully emerged.

Green Giant Tomato

The tomatoes are thriving!  I've planted them all so that I can earth up once they are a little larger, to extend the use of their pots.  I'm really pleased with their progress so far, and soon I'll be able to start making decisions on how I intend to prune and shape their growth.  I like these slightly purple leaves of the Green Giant.  

Potatoes are doing great!!  I have four varieties, and need to earth them all up now.  Pleased with how much they seem to be thriving, considering my first time growing them was last year and it was really just a last ditch attempt to not throw away a potato which was chitting on its own in the cupboard haha.  (I did get some absolutely delicious potatoes from it but they were tiny).  This year I bought proper seed potatoes and proper potato grow bags, so looking forward to hopefully a larger crop this year. 

More soon on the variety details of my potatoes, okra, tomatoes etc.  Just wanted to give a larger update overall, but I will soon be building myself a small (not walk in) fruit cage because both my gooseberry and blackcurrant are laiden with these:

Goosebery flowers - Can you see the little green gooseberries above them?

This green gooseberry in particular is thriving with a ton of new growth and flowers appearing.  I'm very excited because I got all my fruit bushes last year and they grew and went dormant, and this is the first year they are flowering/fruiting!!

Lessons Learned: Growing Cucamelons

This is the first in a new group of posts called "Lessons Learned" about specific types of plant, or gardening in general.  I'm starting with Cucamelons because I have had a lot of interest and questions asked about them!

Directly after a good feed! (Which is why the soil looks so wet, light and muddy)

I first discovered these when looking for exotic seeds, and came across James Wong's online shop.  I'd heard of him through the "Grow Your Own Drugs" fame (to my knowledge, his first book).  But I hadn't read it.  I was actually looking for information on growing Inca Berries when I came across his website and was intrigued by the Cucamelons.  They just looked so damn cute!!  I thought at first they were a savoury gherkin type of pickling cucumber, but he describes them as "cucumber with a tinge of lime".  That makes me think they're more like a grape perhaps?  A bit more acidic?

So I got hold of some seeds and went ahead and planted them and they GREW FAST.  I had, what I thought was 2 straying vines, in a tiny 5cm diameter pot, and they trailed for about 60cm!  This all happened within the space of a week or so.  Now, I did plant them pretty late in the season, because I was just too desperate to try them out and see what they were like, and wasn't really expecting them to do anything.  So I was very impressed with the rate they grew at.  I re-potted them to discover there were in fact far more than 2 plants, but actually 6.  You can see my previous post about them here.

Now since repotting, I tried to train them up a trellis and they began to start flowering, but none of the fruits set sadly.  I would have hand pollinated, but the flowers never matured to open properly.  I think the reason for this was by the time they flowered, it was getting too cold for them.  It was sort of expected though with planting them so late.  Despite not having any literal fruits of my labour, I have certainly learned a lot about growing these, the main points of which I will share:

• They seem to grow well pot bound, much like tomatoes (in my experience) as their growth slowed considerably after moving to a larger pot, even after the initial "shock" period where plants are still getting used to their new root space.
• They like the shade.  I considered that they might want more sun after I re-potted them (and due to the lack of room for a larger pot on the shadier side of the greenhouse, I moved it to the sunny side too).  Really though, they haven't done nearly as well in terms of growth in direct sunlight as they managed while creeping between larger pots.
• Don't let them get too wet/waterlogged because they don't handle it well.  I watered them the same amount as a fruiting chilli plant, forgetting really that they are much, much smaller, and don't really need nearly as much water.
• They don't like being fed very much.  I presumed when the flowering began that it was time to start feeding, but they actually slowed growth after this and stopped producing flowers.   I'm not sure if feeding them once the fruits are developing (after pollination is successful) would be beneficial or whether they are best left alone.  Consulting James Wong's 2nd Book, "Homegrown Revolution" he does recommend feeding, so it could just be that I need to use a feed with a higher level of potash in future.
• They don't like too much attention.  I hate to say they "thrive on neglect" but to be honest, I considered the seed hadn't germinated and I'd just leave it a little longer.  Next thing I knew I was preoccupied with chillis and tomatoes and one day discovered this adorable tiny vine creeping around a load of chilli stalks.  Once I realised what they were I began to pay them huge amounts of attention and think I would have been better just admiring from afar.
• They are delightful to grow and have enchanting miniature melon/squash/cucurbita-style vines.   I would highly recommend for a delicate lacey trellis or a hanging basket (I'm going to try them in a hanging basket next season).
• I would also recommend for a windowsill box of some kind.  Although they will get very long and trail, they're miniature leaves aren't as invasive as the likes of a real sized squash, and the limited light they would get on a windowsill would suit them better in my opinion.

I'm actually going to try to overwinter them.  At first I didn't know whether to try to fleece them or just leave them alone and see if they make it, since they don't seem to get on better if I just leave them to do their own thing.  I considered even moving the strongest looking one to a smaller pot of its own and considered discarding the rest/or just leave them alone.  I do have more seeds to start again in spring, but it would be nice if I could indeed salvage something from this initial experiment!  Interestingly however, "Homegrown Revolution" also says they can be either mulched or lifted and dried like a bulb to be replanted as a perennial rather than an annual.  I'm not sure if that would work easily in my case, as due to a late planting they may not have formed the fully thicker root stage that is the part you would need to lift and dry until spring.

I lifted them to see, and only some of them, as I guessed, have formed the thicker roots.  They still appear to be very small, but since the vines are so tiny I actually don't really know if this size is expected or not?  I am drying them out to store, and I may replant one in a single pot and keep it indoors with some mulch to see how it copes and if it comes back.

I'm not sure if the root balls should look more bulb like to be honest, but this one is the most developed, with the section above it being obviously woody compared with the delicate vine.

I have certainly learned a lot growing these, and though I've yet to taste the fruits I'm thoroughly excited about what they might bring in the future, as they are an enchanting little crop to grow with very fast growth, so its quick to see some results.  I'll be replanting the tubers and starting some fresh seed just in case the tubers don't work out much earlier next year, and can't wait to see how they get on.

Cucamelons

These adorable little plants grow like mad but they're like miniature watermelons, and their little leaves and flowers are itty bitty!

They've really grown fast and kind of everywhere, I love trailing plants!  I re-potted them about a month ago, thinking there were only 2 which had germinated.  Turns out there were actually 6, but each "one" had been three interwoven together.  So there are actually some which are much smaller and less developed, so glad that I re-potted them to give them a bit more space.  I'm impressed how long they got to in their tiny 9cm germination pot.

Teeny Tiny Cucamelon

I've put them up against a trellis to trail up, and they've had a few flowers going so hoping to get some lovely cucamelons soon.  I've not tried them before.  Though the trellis will work and look lovely, I think these would work equally well as an adorable hanging basket.  Think I'll try that out next season.

They also were germinated really late, so not really expecting much from them, just wanted to see what they grew like really!